So much for sticking around until the very end of the Newsmax-Donald Trump debate forum. Although the Trump debate never came to be, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum were the only Republican presidential candidates willing to participate in Mr. Trump’s December debate, while all of the remaining candidates at the time declined to do so, including former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney.

However, in the end, Governor Romney received Mr. Trump’s endorsement on Thursday in Las Vegas.

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Interestingly, Mr. Trump even said that Mr. Satorum and Mr. Gingrich had “a lot of guts” to be willing to participate in his debate when the debate was eventually cancelled. Is Donald Trump endorsing someone he actually thinks may not have a lot of courage but is going along with Mr. Romney, because he believes the Massachusetts governor is more than likely going to be the winner of the GOP primary?

I asked the New York businessman on Thursday, after he endorsed Mr. Romney ,why he is throwing his support behind someone he said did not seem to have the “the courage” to participate in his debate.

“He called me and I think he would have (participated in the debate) if I wanted him to. I didn’t put a lot of pressure on. I think he would have if I wanted him to, but I fully understood his reasoning,” said Trump. “He couldn’t have been nicer about it.”

In December, after Romney declined to participate in Trump’s debate forum, Trump told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, “I was surprised because as you know, he wants my endorsement very, very badly. He was very nice, he called me but I was surprised. If I was losing in the polls, I wouldn’t be saying no to anybody.” (Video below H/T Mediaite)

Trump told reporters on Thursday that he made the decision to endorse Romney “a couple of weeks ago” and did not tell Mr. Gingrich he would not be endorsing him saying, “I think he’s a wonderful person and I know him well and I like him a lot.” Mr. Trump later added that he had a very good relationship with the speaker.

One thing is for sure, Donald Trump does not like to look like a loser, which is why he never planned to be a third party spoiler. That would have meant he would have lost the race just to block someone else from winning. That is just not his style. Trump is putting his bet behind who he thinks will ultimately be the winner in the end.

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About the Author

Kerry Picket, a former Opinion Blogger/Editor of The Watercooler, was associate producer for the Media Research Center, a content producer for Robin Quivers of “The Howard Stern Show” on Sirius satellite radio and a production assistant and copy writer at MTV.